@playwright-labs/barcode-core

1D barcode encode/decode primitives for Node.js — SVG encoder (jsbarcode) and multi-input decoder (javascript-barcode-reader).

What this package provides

@playwright-labs/barcode-core is the shared foundation used by @playwright-labs/fixture-barcode. It can also be used standalone in any Node.js project that needs:

• BarcodeEncoder — renders EAN/Code128/UPC/... barcodes as SVG strings, no browser or canvas required
• BarcodeDecoder — decodes barcodes from buffers, streams, files, base64 strings, or raw pixel data

Installation

pnpm add @playwright-labs/barcode-core

BarcodeEncoder

import { BarcodeEncoder } from '@playwright-labs/barcode-core';

// svg (default): resolves with the SVG string
const svg = await new BarcodeEncoder({ format: 'EAN13' }).encode('5901234123457');

// file: writes the SVG, resolves with the path
await new BarcodeEncoder({ format: 'EAN13', type: 'file', path: 'barcode.svg' })
  .encode('5901234123457');

// stream: pipes the SVG into the writable, resolves with ''
await new BarcodeEncoder({ format: 'EAN13', type: 'stream', writable })
  .encode('5901234123457');

// imagedata: resolves with raw RGBA pixels ({ data, width, height })
const image = await new BarcodeEncoder({ format: 'EAN13', type: 'imagedata' })
  .encode('5901234123457');

// buffer / uint8array / uint8clampedarray: SVG as UTF-8 bytes
const bytes = await new BarcodeEncoder({ format: 'EAN13', type: 'buffer' })
  .encode('5901234123457');

Constructor options: format (required), output target (type: svg | file | stream | imagedata | buffer | uint8array | uint8clampedarray, default svg) plus jsbarcode rendering options — width, height, displayValue, text, fontSize, margin, background, lineColor, flat.

imagedata renders pixels directly (no SVG involved), so it feeds straight into BarcodeDecoder.decode(type, image) — full roundtrip without a rasterizer. Text options (displayValue, text, fontSize) are ignored in this mode.

Supported formats (BarcodeFormat): CODE128 (+A/B/C), EAN13, EAN8, EAN5, EAN2, UPC, CODE39, ITF, ITF14, MSI (+variants), pharmacode, codabar.

Invalid values reject (e.g. wrong EAN-13 checksum digit).

Output is SVG only. Rasterizing to PNG needs a canvas implementation — out of scope for this package.

BarcodeDecoder

Barcode type is required per call (Barcode union is exported):

import { BarcodeDecoder } from '@playwright-labs/barcode-core';

const decoder = new BarcodeDecoder();

await decoder.decode('ean-13', pngBuffer);                   // Buffer / Uint8Array (PNG, JPEG, ...)
await decoder.decode('code-128', 'data:image/png;base64,...'); // data URL
await decoder.decode('code-128', rawBase64String);           // raw base64
await decoder.decode('upc-a', readableStream);               // Readable of an encoded image
await decoder.decode('ean-8', { data, width, height });      // raw RGBA pixels

// file via constructor options
await new BarcodeDecoder({ type: 'file', path: 'barcode.png' }).decode('ean-13');

Supported types (Barcode): ean-13, ean-8, upc-a, upc-e, code-39, code-93, code-2of5, code-128, codabar, msi, pharmacode.

Resolves with the decoded string. Unsupported input throws TypeError.

EAN-13 caveat: the underlying reader does not recover the leading digit (encoded via left-group parity, not bars) — expect the 12-digit tail.

Encoder and decoder format names differ (EAN13 vs ean-13) — they come from different underlying libraries.

Related packages

• @playwright-labs/fixture-barcode — Playwright fixture and matchers built on this package
• @playwright-labs/qrcode-core — same idea for QR codes

License

MIT